My wife left me for a younger man..or rather I sent her off to spend time with a

[Ken Fitzgerald]

younger man.....For Christmas I gave her airline tickets. She's in Portland since Friday after school. Our great-grandson's first birthday was yesterday and she was able to see him...our granddaughter and spouse, our daughter and spouse.....She returns this evening.

Today we celebrate our 39th anniversary. Whew...39 years ago I met a young blonde divorcee with 2 kids.....A blind date....3 days later I asked her to marry me.....8 days later after signing over my checking and savings account to her I left for bootcamp....2 days after getting home from boot camp....on Christmas Eve we were married.....I nearly lost her to a rare form of cancer 16 years ago..

Only 2 photos of the wedding.....You can tell how excited we were.....She had just ended a terrible first marriage ......and I was taking on a wife and 2 kids on Seaman Apprentice pay...Were we ever that young?

[Stephen Beckham]

Ken,

Even without a writer's strike - they couldn't make that kind of stuff up! Congrats - that's the American Dream at it's best...

Merry Christmas and Happy Anniversary...

Steve

[Ken Werner]

Congrats, and thanks for sharing the tale.

Best wishes.

Ken

[Don Orr]

A very Happy Anniversary and Merry Christmas to you and the Mrs. Ken. And best wishes for many more to come!

[Roy Wall]

Ken,

Even without a writer's strike - they couldn't make that kind of stuff up! Congrats - that's the American Dream at it's best...

Merry Christmas and Happy Anniversary...

Steve

Ditto to that Ken - Merry Christmas!!!

[Jim Becker]

That can't be you, Ken...too good looking!! LOL

Seriously, CONGRATULATIONS!!!! 39 is a great number to celebrate. May you get to 60 and beyond!

[Rick Gifford]

Congrats Ken!

We had our 20th Saturday... still a long way to go to reach 39 years!

I saw your title and got excited, thought I'd see what your secret was to getting the wife to leave... mine keeps finding her way back home :p

Just kidding of course. I'm glad she doesnt subscribe to these forums and read that.

[Brian Weick]

Congratulations Ken~ My hat goes off to our grandson! :)
Brian

[Ron Jones near Indy]

Congratulations Ken! Happy anniversary and Merry Christmas to you and yours. May you have many more together.:)

[Phil Thien]

Hey congrats and that is a great story. Great photos, too. Such a handsome young couple.

[Gary Keedwell]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v196/evsac/Video/Birthday%20Smiley/congrats.gif


Merry Christmas to you and family,

Gary

[Glenn Clabo]

Hey sailor...get a room!

Nice story...Congrats!

[Thomas Knighton]

I've only been married for 7 years, and I have to wonder how anyone lasts that long ;)

Congratulations. I'm sure part of it has to do with you being a Navy man ;)

Tom
Former Corpsman :D

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Thanks folks...........I've often said "God looks out for fools....babies....and drunks.......Some of us were lucky enough to qualify in all three classifications!"


Thanks again for the well wishes......I leave to drive to the airport 3 blocks away......Her flight is arriving soon.

[Al Willits]

Been telling ya Ken, them quickie romances never last.....:D:D

Congrats, that's a long time with the same woman, must be a pretty special lady.

Al....who also has a keeper...:)

[Mike Cutler]

Happy Anniversary Ken.

If you started out and made it on E2 pay in the late 60's, ain't nothing going to stop you two.
You look so serious, or scared to death in that photo.;)

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Mike....You were right on both accounts....deadly serious as in "what did I just do??????????" and so scared I couldn't have spit. She was working in an electronics assembly plant at the time but 60% of her wages went to a baby sitter for the two kids. 18 months later...we weren't getting along and I was in Brunswick, GA going to school and she and the 2 kids were in central Illinois...the company closed the plant where she was working ....she called me up....said "rent a place..if we are going to starve, we might as well do it together..." She and a cousin packed everything we had in the back of a '64 Ford and drove to Brunswick Labor Day weekend. Thanks to a horsepower of a Master Chief Petty Officer I obtained a loan and rented a dive and cleaned it up before she and the kids got there. We survived on Kraft Macaroni and Cheese boxed dinners ( I think they cost about 5 cents at the time IIRC)until I re-enlisted in November and got a healthy re-enlistment bonus "CASH". It wasn't until 1999 that she, at my orders, brought a Kraft Mac and Cheese dinner into the house again. We had 2 granddaughters living with us for a year and one of them liked them.

The way we were fighting at the time.....if she hadn't had the courage to move to Georgia we'd have probably divorced. But suffering through those 2 months together.....1300 miles from our folks.....well....it actually forced us to pull together in harness.....we got closer.....and had a chance to get to know each other much better....She's gutsy!

[Tony De Masi]

Congratulations Ken. Must have been that pulp mill smell in Brunswick that kept you two together:D

Tony

[Joe Mioux]

Mike....You were right on both accounts....deadly serious as in "what did I just do??????????" and so scared I couldn't have spit. She was working in an electronics assembly plant at the time but 60% of her wages went to a baby sitter for the two kids. 18 months later...we weren't getting along and I was in Brunswick, GA going to school and she and the 2 kids were in central Illinois...the company closed the plant where she was working ....she called me up....said "rent a place..if we are going to starve, we might as well do it together..." She and a cousin packed everything we had in the back of a '64 Ford and drove to Brunswick Labor Day weekend. Thanks to a horsepower of a Master Chief Petty Officer I obtained a loan and rented a dive and cleaned it up before she and the kids got there. We survived on Kraft Macaroni and Cheese boxed dinners ( I think they cost about 5 cents at the time IIRC)until I re-enlisted in November and got a healthy re-enlistment bonus "CASH". It wasn't until 1999 that she, at my orders, brought a Kraft Mac and Cheese dinner into the house again. We had 2 granddaughters living with us for a year and one of them liked them.

The way we were fighting at the time.....if she hadn't had the courage to move to Georgia we'd have probably divorced. But suffering through those 2 months together.....1300 miles from our folks.....well....it actually forced us to pull together in harness.....we got closer.....and had a chance to get to know each other much better....She's gutsy!

This should be required reading for anyone having marital problems.

THat is a great story, Ken.

Congrats on 39 years.

Joe

[Roy Hatch]

Ken, What a beautiful real life story! You two have beaten the odds.

Roy

[Lee Schierer]

Congratulations. Its great being married for that long LOML and I just celebrated our 37th, though we knew each other 6 years before we tied the knot. Hope you have many more years together

Our first apartment was pretty nice, but was considered low rent housing. Our bed was a mattress setting on top of boxes of my school books so it was above the floor. We were over 500 miles from Mom & Dad so we had to do it alone.

You gotta love those Masterchiefs.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Thanks Lee!

There is a lot of us who managed to make it through the "hard" times....We were the lucky ones. I can't imagine being married to another woman. It's also amazing how the relationship changes over an extended period of time too! Glowing coals burn hotter than raging flames.:)

[Nancy Laird]

Ken, reading the story of your and Sharon's early years sort of reminds me of my first marriage---which bit the dust after 11 years! He was also a Navy man, and he was an E-3 when we married--we lived in Memphis, 20 miles away from the base in Millington, and we had no car!! So every morning he caught a ride from a Marine neighbor to and from work, while I rode the bus everywhere I went. We had been married about 2 months before we bought a car. If we had stayed married, we'd be celebrating 42 years in '08. But I came to my senses, found David, and we're coming up on 25 years in March!!! Best move I ever made!!

Congrats to you and Sharon---you bet it took a lot of guts for you to take on a wife and 2 kits on E-2 pay---I remember how low it was in 1970 (I worked in the disbursing office). You've beat the odds, my friend. Hugs to both of you.

Nancy

[jeremy levine]

I love happy endings. Best wishes for many more years.